wescoent

Thank God. I've always wondered why they never punched the 5.4L out to 5.8L, and took advantage of the Boss 351 legend. That'll make a very nice midrange offering for the Mustang to hit back against the upcoming 6.0L Camaro for a slight premium over the 4.6/5.0 GT, as well as give the F-150 and Expedition some kick. The 6.2L motor (with the rumored 425hp) should also put the big Lincoln trucks back on the map. A nicely facelifted Navigator and redesigned Mark LT around 2008-2009 with the 6.2L standard will put the Escalade back on the trailer. It may be a dying segment, but I'm sure Ford can find at least 1,000 buyers a month for the Mark LT (which will share componentry with the F-150 anyway), and at least 2,500 buyers a month for the Navigator, regardless of fuel prices. So the real question is, what architecture these motors will be based on. Modular? Boss? Cyclone?

The design is reminiscent of the Saturn Aura (with which it no doubt shares major componentry and chassis hard points), and the curved beltline reminds me of the Mercedes CLS. It seems Chevy is pursuing the round tail-light theme we've seen in the old Impala and current Cobalt. It does look a little like a more upright Intrepid, and with the right detailing under the camo, could be a very attractive new design from Chevy, and a world of improvement from the crap Honda and Toyota are pushing. At this point, the real deal-breaker could be the interior, but GM interiors have been getting better as of late.

Very interesting news. Just some of my thoughts on the matter... Ford has a chance here to make a big splash in the performance market, and if they get started on it soon enough, they might be able to steal enough of the Camaro and Challenger's thunder to blunt their market impact significantly. A stripped down, lightweight performance Mustang will truly be the anti-GT500, and provide a compelling case for RX-8 and 350Z owners. More importantly, development work for how to build a lightweight Mustang that handles great, is still reasonably stiff, and isolates the driver from noise will be done. Send all that information and maybe 2,000 Boss Mustang over to Shelby American, let them play with them for a few months, and then release a genuine, bonafide Shelby GT350, all stripped down and ready to race, or ready to put Porsches and Corvettes to shame on the street. The second part of this new Mustang equation will be the engine. The new 4.6L 3V is a gem of an engine and attached to a gem of a drivetrain. But, there is a lot more potential to be extracted from it, both through engineering and marketing. The 1980's 5.0 Mustang did absolute wonders for Ford's performance reputation in a dark time for enthusiasts, and was THE tuner's performance car of choice before the Southern Californians began doing their thing with Civics. At the moment, Ford is doing absolutely nothing to benefit from this huge brand equity just sitting around collecting dust. Bore out the 4.6 to a 5.0, and play around with it until you get 340hp from unleaded 87 octane gas. Put this engine into every vehicle the 4.6 is currently in. There's your next appearance package, a 5.0 GT package, with big chrome 5.0 badges on the side, a bodykit, and whatever else Ford sees fit. Then, for the Boss 302, tune the heck out of the 5.0 until its all the way up to 390hp, and there you go. Shelby can go even further with the GT350. Then, the 6.2L Boss engine can replace the 5.4L block, in both detuned (380hp), and tuned (425hp) applications.

I think Toyota is going to lose their shirts with the new Tundra. Having spent a billion or two dollars to design the truck and build the plant, and it's going to hit the market JUST as the market for full-size pickups is going to contract, and in a way bad for Toyota. The market for recreational trucks is the one that's going to take a hit. People buy Chevy and Ford trucks for work, and they buy Hemi Rams, Titans, and Tundras for play. With gas prices the way they are, and the fact that many people will realize they don't want the truck badly enough to deal with such high gas prices, and they will dump them, and move to either smaller trucks, CUVs, and Hemi Chargers for people looking for that old-school American feel. The Tundra is a big, badass truck for sure, targeted at the same market as Hemi Rams and Titans. Contractors and people who need their trucks for work are firmly entrenched with Ford and Chevy, and aren't going to experiment with a truck that is not only unproven, but is way too stylized and glamorous for their needs and wants. Thus, as the recreational full-size pickup truck market evaporates, Toyota will fall flat on their faces when they dive into the pool. It would be as if Toyota introduced a full-size V8 sedan in 1972. Ford and Chevy will take a small hit, but nothing compared to the cataclysmic drops we'll see from other makers.

Though a very tantalyzing thought, I don't think we'll be seeing a dedicated SVT Fusion anytime soon truly worthy of the name. Not enough money to go around between all these new launches and cost-cutting. However, if this information is true, then Ford does recognize that there are customers out there looking for a sporty roomy coupe that isn't a Mustang. I do strongly agree that this coupe should be more in the tradition of the 70's 2-door sedans, than an overwrought, overstyled coupe like the G6, which ended up not having as much room as a Mustang anyway. All Ford really needs are 2 versions. One is the attention-getting Fusion coupe with a 3.5L V6 and a choice of manual and automatic transmissions, along with an optional sport package with a bodykit, bigger rims, firmer suspension, and racy gauges. The other would be the volume-leader I4 coupe for people feeding off the V6 coupe's hype. The Zephyr coupe would basically be a repackage of the V6 Fusion coupe.

Only two serious complaints with this truck. One, although the 5.4L V8 is fine for most buyers, I feel they really do need an optional engine for the Expedition, and definately for the Navigator. I'm also not optimistic about that black plastic over the glovebox... it might be soft-touch, but I'm afraid its the same crap you get in a $13,000 Ford Focus. Other than that, absolutely magnificent showing from Ford here. Everything about it, save those two complaints, and ESPECIALLY the interior, makes the GMT900's look like trash. The fact that Ford tripled its interior budget is really showing these days. Not only does it look absolutely fantastic, but it lets you know you're in a big beefy truck, and not the Impala-esque Tahoe innards unbefitting of a vehicle in that price range. Though I'm sure the baser Expedition won't be quite as luxury-laden, that's the point of having two different trim levels. Between the Expedition Limited and Navigator, it warms my hear to see classic American luxury at its best. Too bad they couldn't apply the same efforts to the Crown Victoria and Lincoln Town Car.

SOLD

By the looks of things, I would guess that it's a Mustang platform, with a Mercury body, and my 1996 Thunderbird's greenhouse. I would also guess either a Cougar or Lincoln Mark IX.

I'm thinking along the same lines. At this point, even with just the triplets, Hermosillo is almost at capacity anyway. Once they really get established in the marketplace, and these variants begin production, they're simply going to run out of room. Not to mention the rising fleet allocation once the Taurus bites the dust. AutoAlliance comes to mind. It would make a lot of sense to move Mustang production to Wixom, especially once that car starts spawning RWD siblings. Then, once the Mazda6 moves to the CD3 architecture, we could have a second CD3 flexplant there. This would also keep the Town Car in production.

To be fair, Mazda has dipped its feet into the MPV market with the Mazda5, which has sold horrendously since launch. Ford is also contemplating bringing in a small minivan for 2010 to supplement the Fairlane, which leads me to believe we ARE getting the C2 Focus, with its C-Max variant being built on the same assembly line. I'm of the opinion that Ford should stop trying to make the Focus the one-size fits all small car. They need to break that segment up into various specialty vehicles: Fiesta- roomy, conventional small car picking up the cheapos who just want inexpensive, reliably, efficient transportation Reflex- Ford 2+2 sports car slotting under the Mustang and Fusion coupe as a direct competitor with the Scion tC Bronco- 5-place mini SUV slotting under the Escape, with available 4WD and priced alongside the Focus Focus- upscale small car... basically the same as it is today, but moved upmarket a little bit Ford also needs to make top-dog special editions to grab people's attention. A Focus and Fiesta RS rally-type car. A super-beefy offroading Bronco. An SVT Reflex with a big turbo. Something cheap and simple to make, but cool enough to get magazines and people talking about the cars.

Motor Trend reported that Toyota will continue the current model for 2 years, and then drop it. Sales have been absolutely horrific, and dealers can't give them away. However, they will be introducing a sporty Corolla coupe to replace the Celica.

The truck market isn't going anywhere, but Ford just needs to build better trucks. Ford is not going to sell as many trucks as it did in the 1990's, and needs to revise its cost structure to make everything much more homogenized and modular to save on cost. They need one frame for the Ranger, Explorer, Sport-Trac, and Mountaineer, and one frame for the F-150 and Expedition, and thats it. Their engine/transmissions need to be brought up to date as well. They need a 4.0L version of the 3.5L V6 for the Explorer, Ranger, and base F-150. They need a midlevel 4.6L motor with 300hp for all their trucks. They need an uplevel 5.4L V8 with 360hp. And finally, the 6.2L to replace the V10 and serve as an top-dog option for the F-150. They need a 4.4L diesel V8 for the F-150 and Expedition, and a V6 diesel for the Explorer and Ranger. And 6-speed automatics all around. And an optional, modular hydraulic launch assist system for use in all BOF vehicles. Once Ford gets this base down, then they can just continually improve everything into the future, just like Toyota has done. Share as many parts as possible, so when one part is upgraded, all vehicles benefit from it.

That's music to my ears. Especially the part about the 3.5L engine in the Fusion coupe. Sounds very much like BMW's offering the 335i with a turbo engine in the coupe only. The Lincoln coupe sounds great as well. No serious visual changes aren't such a big deal, but I'm hoping that these models will get some kind of unique options. Optional steering-wheel mounted paddle-shifters, AWD, and some kind of sport appearance package (body kity, monochromatic or black chrome trim, bigger rims), would be fantastic. On the other hand, the coupe market seems to be continuing to dry up. Although the G6 coupe is all-new, and Lexus and Cadillac are introducing new coupe models of their entry-level sedans, the Solara, Sebring, and Stratus coupes are on their way out.

I sincerely doubt we're going to see the Thai Ranger here. Ford has had an all-new Ranger in development for the better part of 6 or 7 years, but the program has been delayed and put on the back burner many times due to Ford's recurring financial troubles. From what I've heard, its slightly larger than the current model, but not big enough to be in the Dakota/Tacoma class. Just to be a little roomier and a little more functional. I've also heard that Ford is developing an all-new Explorer platform, which will probably share a lot of parts with the T1 chassis to save on cost. A common modular architecture that underpins the Ranger, Explorer, Sport-Trac, F-150, and Expedition would make a lot of sense, and sounds like something Mark Fields would do. The only danger with T1 sharing would be excessive weight gain, making a 4-cylinder option impossible. The new Ranger needs to keep the same basic packaging, only a little roomier. The biggest engine should be a punched out Cyclone 4.0 V6 with about 260hp and enormous torque for towing. Another option would be the introduction of a F100 truck, and to keep the current Ranger as a smaller, fuel-efficient model.

I can't imagine it would be all that challenging to make an off-road competant Bronco off the B1 platform. Its smaller size and inevitably better packaging than the Wrangler will make it more nimble offroad. Assuming it's engineered to have a 4WD option, all it would need for a FX4 package would be beefier tires, taller ride, off-road shocks, and plenty of skidplates underneath, all of which are bolt-on plug-in parts. I doubt the hardcore offroaders who want to climb vertical cliffs would give up their Wranglers anyway, but for kids who are looking to go camping or take their trucks down dirt woods trails, an FX4 package like that would easily fulfill what they're looking for. With a base model starting under $13,000, topped off with a full-tilt FX4 model at $22,000, sandwiching a bread and butter popularly equipped FX4 Appearance Package (with beefier tires and such), Ford could have the next Mini Cooper on their hands. 35-40 mpg for a truck-looking thing ain't gonna hurt. An attractive, 2+2 Reflex coupe would also be a hot seller these days to give Ford a sports car option underneath the Mustang. Simply borrowing the next-gen Fiesta, and building it in a low cost North American factory would round out the lineup very nicely, giving Ford something to compete directly with the Aveo, Yaris, and Fit, while the other two take on Scion head to head.

Absolutely. The Five Hundred has the most rear-leg room of any car made today, with the exception of the Maybach 62, Rolls Royce Phantom, and Lincoln Town Car L. The Fusion was also widened and made taller compared to the Mazda 6 with the intent being more interior roominess. Sitting back to back in a Five Hundred and Taurus, there is simply NO comparison. Even the Focus was one of the first American vehicles to have the tall profile that small cars have nowadays, with the interest of making the interior more roomy. Makes for a huge advantage once you get customers into the car.

Well, to be fair, buyers of large luxury sedans tend to be older. The average age of an S-Class driver is 62, compared to the Town Car's 70. Town Car buyers never were young, and never will be young. Lincoln has built cars for young people. The Lincoln Versailles, Mark VII, Mark VIII, and Lincoln LS were all directly targeted at young, import-preferring buyers. The Versailles was a total failure, but the Marks were very successful up until the total collapse of the luxury coupe market as the sports sedan market took off in the mid 1990's. The Lincoln LS was very successful, but proved too expensive for Ford's tastes to stay relevant in its very hot segment. In spite of being somewhat soft compared to the hard-edged Lincoln LS, the Zephyr has an average buyer age of 56. Lincoln, Cadillac, Mercedes, and Lexus have always been brands geared for middle-aged to older people (since those people actually have money to spend on luxury cars), but there's a difference between being an older person's brand, and an old stodgy brand. As I mentioned in another thread, the Town Car itself has become a bastion of older buyers perfectly content with their car (an ever-shrinking group), as well as livery and limo companies. Cadillac has the same situation with the DTS, but is looking to change that with the next-generation RWD DTS to appear around 2010. The Town Car is perfectly fine selling to commercial buyers, but it NEEDS new retail buyers to stay relevant. Only 40% of Town Car sales are to fleets, and if their customer base dies off, it's done anyway. If Lincoln remade the Town Car in the image of the 2002 Continental Concept with a new engine, tranny, and interior, it would keep selling to the commercial buyers, and immediately create buzz by becoming the rapper's new darling vehicle. Like the 300, once buzz is created, people will come to it.

Here's my take on what happened with the Focus: Ford had a choice in 2005, whether to continue on with the same design, or retool the factories to build an American-ized C1 European Focus. Given how much money they were spending on the Five Hundred, F-150, and Mustang launches, they figured if they restyled the front and rear to LOOK like the new C1 Focus, as well as give it a more conventional interior, and new engines, that would be sufficient change on top of an already highly-rated platform. By time all of this was set in stone, Ford THEN decided to go with the 427-styling for its signature design, leaving the Focus, Five Hundred, and Freestyle as orphans of this new direction. Fortunately, the Futura/Fusion was still in the early development stages, so they could change it. From what I've heard, it was supposed to look like a giant Focus/Mondeo, but they changed it after the excellent reaction to the 427. It then sold decently for a bit, but then as new cars like the Civic and Cobalt hit the market, consumers started to drift towards these newer designs, and Ford realized it HAD to do something about it. Ford designers were talking about moving away from the European nature of the Focus, and looking at the next design being distinctly American. By time Focus sales started to slide, it was pointless to start plans to simply bring the C1 Focus over here, because the C2 is so far along in development. The 2008 Focus will be a cheap, easy fix to make the car fresh for what will probably be an extra-long model year. Wayne will probably work overtime for a few months to build enough 2008 Focuses to last until the plant can retool for the completely redesigned, all-new 2009 Focus. Design-wise, I expect it to be similar to what the 2000 Cadillac Deville was to that brand. A bridge between the older-style European Focus, and the all-new American Focus. I truly believe that Mark Fields and his team knows what the American consumer expects from a premium small car, and recognizes that the market is polarizing, so that Ford will follow Toyota and Chevrolet in offering both a B-car and a C-car. He also recognizes that Ford can't turn the Focus into a Corolla, since that simply isn't what it is. A Focus is not the boring econobox that they tried to turn it into with the 2005 model. It's an edgy, fun small car with distinctive design and a sporty character to back it up. If they can embrace what a Focus truly is, and sell to Focus customers, they will see sales take off. Burger King sales are skyrocketing right now, because Burger King refuses to follow Wendy's and McDonalds in expanding their customer base. They're selling to their core customers, who will eat there every day, and want the biggest and most badass burgers out there, health be damned. This means they need to forget about selling to the cheapo customers who want the most car for the least amount of money. That market will be taken care of by the B-car. They need to concentrate on Focus transaction prices from $15,000 all the way up to $21,000 for the well-equipped models. They need three distinct types of Focus models, all available in sedan, hatch, and wagon forms. They need a well-equipped standard Focus model that most people will buy. They need a fuel-miser model, equipped with either a hybrid or diesel engine. They also need a range-topping sporty model in the tradition of the Subaru Impreza, that will compete directly with that car, as well as the Cobalt SS, Dodge SRT-4, and Civic Si. Ford should also think about contracting out Roush or another performance shop to build an extremely limited edition Focus RS. Take all the stock internals of the hottest Focus that Europe has, and put it all underneath the American model. Build maybe 1,000 per year, and have all the parts for it available under warranty through the Ford Racing catalog, so buyers can build their own versions of it off the ranger-topping sporty Focus model. This thing needs Recaro seats, big rims, xenon lights, an optional killer stereo, and enough power to run with or beat an Evo outright. Yes, it will cost about $30,000, and yes, it will overlap with the Mustang, and provide GT500-beating performance for $15,000 less. GT500 buyers will NOT care about this car, and Focus RS buyers do not care about the GT500. This will make Focus buyers happy, because they now have a car to drool over. It will make dealers happy because now they have a whole catalog of bolt-ons they can throw on lesser Focus models and up transaction prices. And it will make Ford happy, because they now have a hyped and hot small car brand. Yes, it will overlap the Mustang and Fusion brands, and may cannibalize some sales, but it will bring in far many more customers than a half-assed refresh would entail. Plus, all the costs would be spread throughout Volvo and Mazda, so they can can their own versions of basically the same car, drive showroom traffic, and since I doubt those brands are cross-shopped much, not worry about cannibalizing sales.

First of all, FWD was NOT the reason Cadillac fell in the 1980's. It fell because the cars they were building were small, anemic, and utterly pathetic looking, compared the the stately Town Car with its smooth torquey V8 power. Hence the widespread defection to Lincoln, who ironically were in the middle of developing a front-drive Town Car (which became the Continental), but the program fell behind due to Ford's financial troubles in the early 80's. At the moment, Town Car sales have collapsed for several reasons: 1- Its customers are literally dying off. 2- It hasn't had a significant internal or external change since 1998, so current owners have no real reason to trade their ultra-reliable and comfortable older models for a newer model that looks and feels exactly the same, but will set them back $40,000. 3- It has not kept up with its rivals. From the early 60's all the way to the late 80's, the Town Car was just as good as ANY large luxury sedan out there, and was an amazing bargain in comparison. However, Ford's decision to not offer the DOHC aluminum InTech V8 for its 1994 refresh was what really doomed the Town Car. Ford became content just to continually and incrementally update it to appeal to its current customers, while Mercedes, Lexus, and Cadillac blew it away with their newest offerings. The Town Car is not going to reclaim the market it had in the 1980's, since competitors have moved on and the Town Car name has come to mean something else. But to utterly throw away the livery and limousene market is just foolish. The Town Car could solider on for another 10 years easily with the following redesign: 1: Restyle the body to look exactly like the 2002 Lincoln Continental Concept 2: Put in the 300hp V8/6-speed automatic from the Explorer 3: Redesign the interior to look like the Zephyr

I would imagine the Ford version sticking with the 3.5L V6 and being perfectly fine (265hp rips the hell out of any other van in the market right now), where the Lincoln would have the V8 as an option. A twin-turbo V6 wouldn't do the same justice to the Lincoln experience that a smooth 4.4L V8 would. On the other hand, Ford has said the 3.5L V6 will fit anywhere the current 3.0L can, so if Ford could develop a twin-turbo V6, they would have a valuable uplevel engine offering for performance version of the Fusion/Milan/Zephyr, Edge/MKX, Ranger, Five Hundred/Montego/Freestyle.

Ironic, considering how the SRT-10 Ram appeared just as the Lightning disappeared, and now the Lightning will be back just in time to see the end of the SRT-10 Ram. From what I've heard, Ford was basically done developing the Lightning, but simply could not find a suitable automatic transmission to match with the supercharged 5.4L engine. So, if that's the case, we might as well make the Lightning, and not throw away all that development money. Other options would be to build the Sport-Trac Adrenaline, build a twin-turbo 3.5L Ford Ranger Thunderbolt with the motor out of the new Lincoln MKS, or spend the money now on an SVT Fusion, and wait for the next-gen F-150. I would suggest an SVT Focus, but they might as well wait a year for the Focus MKIII to get here before doing anything with the older current platform.

Came across this while looking at Ford's Bold Moves website... seems to be a drawing for a 3-row passenger vehicle with Lincoln rims and a Lincoln front end (if you zoom in). Sports what appears to be a Mercedes R-Class style profile, as well as what appears to be conventional rear doors. This very well might be the first look at the Lincoln-version of the upcoming Ford minivan-replacement-ex-Fairlane.